GOP Assails Obama On Foreign Policy, Defense

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Republicans delivered a scathing indictment of President Barack Obama’s national security policy, although the Democrat’s aggressive approach has often been compared to that of his GOP predecessor, George W. Bush.

Defense and foreign policy, largely footnotes during the first two days of the Republican convention, were at the core of speeches by Sen. John McCain, Obama’s presidential rival in 2008, and Condoleezza Rice, Bush’s secretary of state. Neither uttered Obama’s name Wednesday night in their prime-time remarks, but the target of their criticism was clear.

“For four years, we’ve drifted away from our proudest traditions of global leadership,” McCain said. “We’ve let the challenges we face, both at home and abroad, become harder to solve.”

He faulted Obama for projected cuts to defense spending, a timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan and an unwillingness to use more U.S. military force to stop the months of bloodshed in Syria. McCain drew the loudest applause when he criticized the government over suspected national security leaks.

Rice acknowledged the nation’s weariness from the two long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that Bush started but said: “If we are not inspired to lead again, one of two things will happen: No one will lead and that will foster chaos, or others who do not share our values will fill the vacuum. … We do not have a choice. We cannot be reluctant to lead — and one cannot lead from behind.”